The aim of the study is to evaluate the physical and chemical changes that occur on wood fragments submitted to different temperatures, verifying their influence on significant chemical characteristics in the forming process. Carbonization process in muffle associated to the techniques of Thermogravimetry, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and multivariate analysis. The analyses were performed on 3 replicates for each burn temperature. The temperature of the thermal muffle process was in every 50 °C, from 200 °C to 600 °C. TGA were performed under nitrogen atmosphere, using a heating ramp from 25 °C min-1 to 995 °C. A range between 1900 to 650 cm-1 was used, with a resolution of 4 cm-1 and 64 scans. The PCA showed that it is possible to describe 95.73% of the data, grouping the samples into three main clusters. These clusters were used to build a SIMCA (Soft Independent Modeling of Class Analogy) model, enabling to predict with 100%. Results showed that technical associations, such as TGA, FTIR and multivariate analysis may help to characterize the natural carbonization process and, in future works, contribute to significant (paleo)environmental inferences.

ABSTRACT A new modified electrode for indirect sensing of OH· and radical scavengers was described. The electrochemical polymerization of methylene blue in aqueous solutions and the properties of the resulting films on a glassy carbon electrode were carried out using cyclic voltammetry. A surface coverage of 1.11 × 109mol cm2 was obtained, revealing a complete surface coverage of the polymeric film on the electrode surface. OH· was able to destroy the poly(methylene blue) film by exposure to a Fenton solution. The loss of the electrochemical signal of the residual polymeric film attached to the electrode surface was related to the extent of its dissolution. The applicability of the sensor was demonstrated by evaluating the OH radical scavenging effect on different concentrations of ascorbic acid. The obtained radical scavenging capacity were 31.4%, 55.7%, 98.9% and 65.7% for the ascorbic acid concentrations of 5, 10, 30 and 50 mM, respectively.

Iontophoresis is a method of administering substances through the skin, which uses electrical current or potential to promote transdermal delivery. We focused on α-tocopherol (vitamin E), a natural antioxidant able to reduce or block the oxidation reactions induced by free radicals in biological membranes. The aim of this study was to perform electrochemical evaluation and analysis of vertical diffusion of gel + α-tocopherol undergoing iontophoresis. The results showed a reduction in peak current at 0.78 V of α-tocopherol molecules when subjected to iontophoresis, increasing the diffusion and degradation of the system.

The theoretical aspects of Voltammetry of Immobilized Microparticles (VIM) were discussed. The immobilization of microparticles on electrode surface, the electrode cleaning processes and the electrode materials were analyzed. The three-phase electrode model and the possible reactions between the immobilized particle and the electrolytic solution were discussed. In addition, this work discusses some selected applications of VIM published in the last years.